Two quarterbacks who have been consistently inconsistent this season are Tom Brady and Cam Newton. Each was drafted with the expectation of being a top ten guy and both have failed to live up to expectations. Newton has been limited by injuries all season before breaking out against the Bengals this weekend. Brady and the New England offense looked awful for the first four games before getting it going in the last two weeks.
So which version of the quarterbacks should we expect to see the rest of the season?
Despite their recent success, I'm not ready to anoint either QB back to their previous elite fantasy standing.
I do think Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots offense will have success this week against a Jets defense that is in the midst of a "Dante's Peak" sized meltdown. But there are still just too many question marks to feel secure long term. Will this new offensive line continue to gel? Now that Gronkowski is finally healthy, can he stay healthy? How much will the loss of Stevan Ridley hurt the offense?
It's encouraging to see Brady begin to look like the old Brady again. But will he keep it up?
"I'm not ready to put Brady into my top 10 quarterbacks for the rest of the season yet," wrote ESPN's Matthew Berry. "But I do think he'll have success versus the Jets on Thursday night and he's in my top 10 for this week. And for the rest of the year, he's closer to a QB1 than he is to a QB2."
As for Newton, I'm worried this weekend's game was an outlier. Remember, he's still recovering from offseason ankle surgery and a broken rib that forced him out of Week 1. His gaudy stat line against the Bengals - 29 of 36 for 284 yards and two touchdowns, 17 carries for 107 yards and one touchdown - was more a desperation "put the team on my back" type performance. I don't see him returning to his rushing ways every week while he still fights to get fully healthy. Without the rushing opportunities, Newton has been very pedestrian this season from a fantasy perspective.
"He's still trying to put everything together," Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik wrote. "You don't know week-to-week what you're going to get from him in that he can start out really hot, or he'll struggle early and then you'll see him beating himself up and getting too frustrated with himself on the sideline. That can make him a really difficult guy to prepare for, but it also limits his overall performance and consistency. That's been his M.O., even as he's gotten a lot better his second and third seasons. He still has some work to do in terms of his discipline within the system."
